The I-94 rivalry provided the Wisconsin Badgers a golden opportunity to rebound from a shocking home loss earlier in the week. Instead, the Badgers came out flat and couldn’t overcome an 11-point deficit in a 57-55 loss to Marquette at the Kohl Center.
Junior forward Vitto Brown went toe-to-toe with Marquette’s star freshman Henry Ellenson, with both scoring a game-high 15 points. However, the rest of the Badgers didn’t heat up alongside of him during crucial moments and it cost the Badgers dearly.
Star forward Nigel Hayes didn’t hit a basket until the second half, but poured in nine of his 10 points in the second half. Junior point guard Bronson Koenig also had his major struggles, shooting just 3 of 11 from the field and contributing just two assists.
The Badgers simply can’t win with those two players struggling and not getting shots off either. When they did, the juniors were like a microcosm of the entirety of the team though.
Wisconsin shot just 36 percent from the field, while allowing Marquette to shoot 52 percent in the loss.
The Golden Eagles starters got plenty of help off the bench, with a 15-0 advantage in bench points, but it was the Badgers two cold streaks that killed off this game.
Wisconsin’s cold shooting from Wednesday continued early on against Marquette, as the Badgers opened the game just 2 of 8 from the field. However, the defensive side of the game came along to help UW avoid digging a deep hole during the opening minutes.
Along with the defensive effort, the Badgers used a hot shooting Vitto Brown to help them eventually take a lead. UW didn’t have their first lead until Brown hit a jumper with 9:01 to play in the first half.
Things began to see-saw at that point, as Wisconsin and Marquette traded the lead eight times and had four ties.
A hot middle of the first half was then followed up by another cold spell, as Wisconsin finished the half just 1 of 11 from the field and shot just 31 percent from the field as a team.
The Golden Eagles took a five-point lead in to the half (29-24) thanks to an 8-1 run to end the first half. Wisconsin was 0-7 from the field in that span, as Marquette finished 3 of 5 during its run.
Halftime did little to cool off the Golden Eagles or warm up the Badgers either, as Marquette started off the final stanza with a 4-0 run and opened up a nine-point lead before Nigel Hayes hit his first basket of the game to temporarily stop the bleeding.
Wisconsin didn’t get a spark from that make though, as the Badgers’ cold shooting woes continued on for awhile in the second half. The Badgers opened the half just 1 of 7 from the field, and dug themselves a hole they couldn’t get out of.
At least that was the feeling as time dwindled down in the game. But, a 12-2 run over the course of five minutes led the Badgers back to within a few scores. It was all keyed by the defense, which forced four turnovers in that five-plus minute span.
UW took advantage of them in a major way, converting XX turnovers in to XX points on the night. After being down 11 at 48-37, a series of turnovers began the Badgers’ offensive run which was punctuated by a Nigel Hayes three-pointer from the baseline to pull within 48-44.
After a few Marquette makes to push the lead forward once again, the Badgers knocked down five straight field goals and made it a one possession game at 51-48 with 4:16 to play.
It set up a wild finish, but ultimately one that seemed all too familiar to the way the Badgers’ season has gone so far.
Wisconsin would eventually tie the ballgame up with just over a minute to play, but as the game swung back and forth in the final minute it led to a Marquette two-point lead with 26.9 seconds left to play.
The Badgers put the ball in the hands of junior forward Nigel Hayes, who drove and threw up a wild layup attempt. It was rebounded by Showalter and Hayes got the ball back with just over 11 seconds left. He would put up a wild three-point attempt that never touched anything and seemingly ended the game.
On my son's 8th grade team sometimes there's one kid who tries to do too much. I just saw that same thing from Nigel Hayes.
— Dave Heller ✍️ (@dave_heller) December 12, 2015
Wisconsin got two huge opportunities as Marquette missed the front end of consecutive one-and-one’s, but the Badgers couldn’t secure the rebound on the first and couldn’t do anything with the second as well.
Even getting the ball back with 0.5 seconds remaining was an epic fail, as the Badgers threw the inbounds pass out through the baseline without touching anyone at all.
The Badgers fell to the Golden Eagles for the first time since the 2012 season and are now 0-2 against in-state foes after Wednesday’s loss to Milwaukee. Wisconsin will complete the in-state contests by hosting Green Bay on Dec. 23.
In the meantime, the Badgers will next take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday night.
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